


Everyone Has Needs

by Ultra



Series: Nate's Niece [3]
Category: Leverage, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Breaking Up & Making Up, Drinking, F/M, Gen, Grumpy Eliot, Multiple Crossovers, Parker Being Parker, Relationship Advice, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2018-08-08 09:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7751878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot has had a long hard day, he doesn't need this crap!</p>
<p>(Originally written for hannasus)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everyone Has Needs

It had been a long day for Eliot Spencer. Spending time with Hardison was fine, either on a job or socially, except for today. Some new game that Eliot had never even heard of and didn’t care to know about apparently got released last night. All his hacker friend wanted to do was be home playing said game with all his geek buddies, but instead they had to pull long and boring recon or their latest job. Eliot had never been so bored, or aggravated by talk of quests and elves and the like. Plus he hadn’t been given the chance to hit anybody all day. That had meant swinging by the gym on the way home just to work out the aggression. Now it was late, and all he wanted to do was take his girlfriend to bed and get some sleep... well, sleep could come after, when he and Parker had worked on tiring each other out for a while. That idea certainly brought a smile to Eliot’s face, though it didn’t last long. He opened the front door and immediately heard the distinctive sound of giggling.

“Oh, great,” he muttered to himself. “It could only be... Hey, V,” he greeted Veronica Mars with an almost-genuine smile, despite the fact he had been grumbling about her presence from the front step to the living room door.

“Eliot, hi,” she smiled back at him, still trying to recover from a fit of the giggles she and Parker had been in the midst of. “How’s things?”

“Can’t complain,” he told her, as his girlfriend leapt up to come over and hug him tight, kissing his cheek with vigour.

“Did we get the info? Do I get to rapel tomorrow?” she asked excitably, bouncing in his arms like a kid at Christmas.

“Yeah, and maybe, but not if you don’t stop drinkin’, babe,” he advised her, nodding towards the almost-empty wine bottle on the table.

From her extra over-crazy behaviour, he suspected it was not the first she and Veronica had attacked. Eliot had learnt a while back that these two left alone and unsupervised, especially with alcohol, never ended especially well. They were way too smart and over-confident in what they could do between them. The master thief that was practically a legend and the best undercover agent the FBI had seen in years, they made quite a pair. To Eliot they were just Parker and Veronica, two giggly blondes that he loved in very different ways, but could use not being drunk in his living room when he’d had a long hard day.

“I’m sorry,” Veronica apologised as she spotted the scowl on the hitter’s face. “The wine is my fault. Actually the whole thing is my fault, I just... I needed someone to talk to, and I came to see Uncle Nate and Sophie thinking they’d appreciate a surprise visit...” she explained.

“But they’re away this weekend, so you came here,” Eliot finished for her, already knowing what she was going to say.

She was upset about something, he could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. This wasn’t just a flying family visit; she was running.

“She and Logan had a fight,” Parker said out loud, not even trying to be subtle - that was his girl.

“Uh-huh,” Eliot nodded as he led Parker over to the couch and they sat down together. “Now, I know Echolls can run his mouth sometimes, but you two have to grow out of this fight and run thing already,” he advised Veronica, absently picking up Parker’s glass of wine and swallowing a big gulp.

He made a face at the flavour and got himself up again to go to the kitchen, returning a moment later with a beer in his hand. Veronica hadn’t spoken up yet in response to what he had said, but she was about to go on the defensive, he was sure.

“All couples fight,” she muttered, hiding in her own wine glass.

“Me and Eliot don’t fight much,” Parker shrugged, smiling at him as he rejoined her on the couch. “Except for the times when I make him mad on purpose, ‘cause then there’s make up sex and that’s just goooood.”

Eliot winced at her words, sometimes forgetting that Parker could be entirely inappropriate when she put her mind to it. Still, Veronica was unlikely to take offence or find the behaviour strange. She knew them all well enough by now, none of their quirks surprised her. She was Nate’s niece, but she had become a friend and ally to the whole team, kind of like a little sister, except there were times when Eliot caught her looking at him in such a way as a girl should never look at her brother!

“What exactly did you and Logan fight about?” he asked her then, knowing there was going to be no peace here until he and Parker helped their friends patch up their relationship.

“Him being a controlling and non-empathetic ass?” Veronica tried, a smart look to go with her smart mouth, just like always.

Half of her spite was the wine talking, Eliot knew. Parker might’ve too if she was paying attention. As it was she was listening to something else. She was up off the couch in one swift movement, quick and smooth like a cat, even in her semi-drunk state. She rushed to the window to peer out into the dim light, then turned back around with a grin on her lips.

“The controlling non-empathetic ass is here,” she declared, at which Eliot smirked.

Yep, where Veronica ran, Logan would give chase, and vice versa when it came down to it. That smile he almost mustered fell away when he realised their making up was now going to happen in his house and not elsewhere. Damn it!

Parker was letting Logan into the house before Veronica had much of a chance to complain. When she got up and looked to be seeking out a back door exit, Eliot got in her way.

“Nope, not gonna happen, V,” he told her firmly, putting his hands to her shoulders to keep her in place. “The dramatics were just fine when you were a college kid. Grown up working woman now, remember? Gotta learn to face this stuff head on.”

“He just doesn’t listen!” she complained, wriggling under his firm but gentle grip. “I don’t want to go to my high school reunion, I just don’t!”

“And that was a reason to run half way across the country?” asked Logan from the doorway, making Veronica spin around too fast. “Wow, sugarpuss. I had no idea you could be such a fraidy cat.”

He was wearing that smirk that could be sexy as hell when Veronica was in the mood, but that right now she’d like to wipe off his face with a slap that’d almost take his head off. He didn’t get it, he just didn’t, and for the life of her she couldn’t understand why. High school was hell for her, absolute hell, and he had been part of the reason once. Now he expected her to go to the ten year reunion like everything was rosy. She couldn’t do it, but she was not about to admit to being scared. It was the only reason that made any sense and she couldn’t use it, so she started throwing insults and dragging up the past. He’d joined in with that and before long it was all out war. She had run for Uncle Nate’s place and now landed up here, crying on the shoulders of two of her most trusted friends. She ought to have known Logan would find her. He had learnt so much about tracking and detective skills from being her other half all these years.

“You just don’t get it,” she said grumpily, turning away, and this time Eliot let her go. 

It wasn’t as if she was getting out of the room when Logan and Parker were blocking one exit and the hitter was in front of the other.

“What I don’t get, Veronica, is how me suggesting we might wanna go back to Neptune High for a few hours ended with you storming out on me like I just committed the crime of the century,” said Logan as he walked further into the room.

Eliot silently signalled for Parker to stay by the other door but not say anything, which she immediately understood. These two needed to talk this thing out without help, but neither could be allowed to bolt before things were figured out. Letting them yell and scream in what was essentially a controlled environment had to be a good thing.

“Logan, you know how hard high school was for me!” yelled Veronica, waving her arms emphatically for good measure. “You know the hell I went through. You went through plenty yourself. Why would I want to go back there and be reminded? Why would you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he told her, seemingly anything but genuinely apologetic. “Here was me thinking of some of those good times we had. Y’know, like when we started dating? When we graduated? The friends we met that we still have to this day? Is none of this worth anything to you?”

“Huh!” Veronica snorted at his gall. “How dare you even ask me that? It’s like suddenly you don’t know me at all, if you ever did,” she shook her head and turned away.

Eliot was getting bored with this now. To be fair, both sides of this thing did make sense, but both Veronica and Logan were being pretty bratty. He glanced over at Parker who was frowning hard. He wondered if it was because she was worried about her friends being mad at each other or if it was the mention of high school that got to her. With Parker, it might even be that she was trying to figure out if she was going to throw up from the wine or not.

“Okay, that’s it!” Eliot yelled before either Veronica or Logan could start again.

“Hey, you made me think we weren’t supposed to talk!” Parker complained to her boyfriend. “I wanted to yell like that ten minutes ago.”

Eliot rolled his eyes and moved between the warring couple before him. He looked from one to the other, both of whom glanced away as if they were the sorry teenagers they were behaving like.

“Now this is just dumb, and I’m not listenin’ to it anymore,” the hitter said definitely, folding his arms across his chest. “Veronica, sweetheart, I know high school was tough on you, I do,” he sympathised, changing track just when she started to look a little smugly at Logan. “But darlin’, that ain’t specific to you. I had a hard time too, and Parker? She didn’t eve get a chance to experience any part of high school, good or bad.”

His girlfriend managed to look so over-the-top sad that it totally sold what he was saying even more. Eliot shifted his gaze to Logan.

“At the same time, I get where she’s coming from, man,” he told him calmly. “When the choice is painful past or happy future, where’d you really wanna be lookin’?”

Parker smiled at that, especially when Eliot winked in her direction. It was the policy they lived by, always looking forward and never back. They’d both had their fair share of heartaches and things in their history they would sooner forget. When they got together and decided it was for keeps, they made a deal to be each others future and let that dark past fade as much as possible.

“For a guy that doesn’t usually talk much, you make good speeches,” said Parker with a wide grin, as Eliot wandered over and encouraged her out of the door, closing it behind them.

Logan and Veronica were talking at a reasonable volume now, and it was expected there would be making up going on before long. Eliot didn’t feel the need to see that, not when he could be doing a little kissing of his own with Parker.

“Well, thank you, ma’am,” he smirked at her comment, moving in to cover her lips with his own.

She was up against the wall with his body tight against hers, their warring and/or making up guests forgotten. Eliot was back on the original plan, and Parker didn’t mind at all. She wouldn’t care if they went to bed leaving their friends down here, and Eliot was starting to think maybe he didn’t care either when she hopped up to put her legs around his waist, lips blazing a trail down his neck.

“Damn it, Hardison!” he cursed just then as his cell started ringing in his pocket.

He wasn’t certain it was the hacker, but he had an idea it would be. Without even checking the screen he took the call, trying to concentrate and not to topple over as Parker continued her assault on his senses.

“This better be good,” he snapped at the caller, letting the attitude go in a second when he realised it wasn’t Hardison at all. “Hey, Barton! Slow down, man,” he said too seriously, encouraging Parker to stop what she was doing and drop down onto her feet.

The thief looked dejected until she leant in closer again and heard the voice on the other end of the line. If Eliot’s cousin was calling, something serious was going down. He only ever contacted them in an emergency. A few seconds later and the call was over. Eliot looked ready for anything, but unfortunately a night of pleasure with Parker was no longer an option.

“Clint needs us in New York, right?" she sighed, blowing her bangs off her forehead.

“Yup, looks like,” Eliot agreed, leaning past Parker to open the living room door.

Logan and Veronica were half way to happy land on the couch, not even noticing he was there. Eliot closed the door again fast and shook his head.

“We’ll leave them a note,” he said, turning towards the stairs. “We got bags to pack and a flight to catch.”

Parker huffed again and moved to run after him, smirking suddenly when an idea hit her.

“Hey, you know one thing I didn’t try on a plane yet?” she said, slapping her boyfriend on the ass as she caught up to him.

All of a sudden Eliot didn’t mind so very much that this night hadn’t gone according to the plan.


End file.
